If
you're lucky enough to have a backyard or neighborhood with a little natural diversity, a
lizard or a lizard kin just might show up one day, sunning itself on the house's
south-facing foundation, climbing up a tree trunk, or, like the Southern Fence
Lizard, Sceloporus undulatus undulatus, pictured at the left, hanging on
a barn door in southern Mississippi.

One neat thing about many in the Lizard Family is that they can
walk up walls. At the right you see the bottom of a foot of a Green Anole, Anolis
carolinensis. There are no suction cups or glue-spots on the foot, so what makes the
foot stick to walls?. The enlarged toe pads clearly visible in the picture are equipped
with millions of microscopic hooks that grip irregularities in surfaces. Geckoes have a
different wall-climbing system. Their feet bear scales covered with jillions of
microscopic hairlike bristles, and at the tip of each bristle is a minute suction cup...

OUR MOST COMMON SPECIES

The species most frequently making it into average U.S. backyards are:

BACKYARD LIZARDS AREN'T DANGEROUS

The only poisonous lizard in North America is the Gila Monster,
restricted to the Desert Southwest. With its very thick body and wide bands running
crosswise, it's not likely to be mistaken for anything else. Therefore, in North America
our backyard lizards can be considered as completely safe -- as long as we're not in Gila
Monster territory.

A SHOCKING EXPERIENCE...

However, be forewarned that a number of species, when caught, shed their tails. As the
tail writhes furiously, the lizard escapes. Of course this is an adaptation to confuse and
shock the enemy -- which is does very well! Backyard naturalists roaming beyond their
backyards should remember never to handle any animal whose behavior they don't understand.

MORE:

Lizardy books available at Amazon.com in both the US and UK can be reviewedhere.